TheJayManson

Meant to add... Let's try and do just FL players My roster QB: Deondre Francois IMG RB: Jordan Scarlett STA WR: George Campbell East Lake WR: Deon Cain TBT WR: Tristan Payton First Coast TE: Devonaire Clairington Champagnat Catholic Utility: Torrence Gibson AH

I was reading Bleacher Report today and they had an article where they created their all-star offensive 7v7 team and I thought it would be an interesting discussion for all of us to have and create our own all-star lineups. Rules: 1 QB 3 WR 1 RB 1 TE 1 utility player- basically would be guy snapping ball who could be rotated in as needed... Could be any position that you want

I attended Saint Stephens Episcopal School in Bradenton Florida where I played Varsity football from 10th through 12th grade

The size of the schools that are independent does have some variance as I know of schools that would be 1A that are independent as well as schools that would be 3A or 4A... The problem is that the amount of independent schools has been steadily growing in the last few years as a result of many teams that were redistricted and reclassified in the latest change and were put into a district that would be unfair to them competitively. For example when I started playing high school football at my alma mater we were a 1A school, we were then moved up to 2A which wasn't too big of a change as we still had a few teams from our old district move up with us. However last year, after I graduated we were placed in 3A with quite a few schools bigger than us and would not have been fair to us competitively. My school along with another school that moved up with us appealed to the FHSAA but were rejected in trying to move back down to 2A so both teams then dropped from the district and became independent.

That TBT vs Plant game may change but I wanted to see these two teams play because I want to check out Deon Cain at TBT who many believe is best WR in state although I believe he plays QB for tech right now but also many people have picked a Plant to go far in the playoffs so I wanted to see how they looked for myself. Another potential game is IMG at Montverde but I will have to check the date to see if it works and I will also be attending at least one game from my alma mater Saint Stephens most likely for their senior night and potentially against rival ODA as well.

I think his reasoning is partially in an attempt to try and curb the latest trend of schools who are becoming independant due to unfair positioning in a district or class and the FHSAA not allowing teams to move down to a classification that would give them chance to be more competitive. I believe their are enough schools currently independant that could form up their own classification with roughly 80 teams.

Here are some of the games i am looking to attend for the fall Kick-off classic East Lake vs Manatee 9/26 Tampa Bay Tech at Plant 10/10 American Heritage at Bolles 10/17 Trinity Christian at IMG

Also, i liken IMG alot to Montverde in basketball, as both schools recruit but are not allowed to recruit guys from Florida, the guys from Florida technically if they go to IMG are supposed to go on their own accord without IMG being involved but many times that is not the case. But for the most part IMG recruits guys from out of state, last year they brought in most notably Michael O'Connor at Quarterback from the Baylor school in TN who was committed to Penn State at one point but not sure if he ended up their and Bo Scarborough from Alabama who is at Alabama now. They lost a lot of talent from last years team most notably, O'Connor, Scarborough, their DE who led the state with 18.5 sacks and CB Matt Boatand who is at Kansas this year. I would say from what I know athlete wise they are down but they will lean heavily on the running game this year with 3 massive lineman leading the way, last year's line was bigger than quite a few D1 teams, and will feature a 4 star Dual Threat QB in Deondre Francois. They also return a strong LB core and will be boosted in the secondary with Marcus Lewis arriving at Cb

Also, i liken IMG alot to Montverde in basketball, as both schools recruit but are not allowed to recruit guys from Florida, the guys from Florida technically if they go to IMG are supposed to go on their own accord without IMG being involved but many times that is not the case. But for the most part IMG recruits guys from out of state, last year they brought in most notably Michael O'Connor at Quarterback from the Baylor school in TN who was committed to Penn State at one point but not sure if he ended up their and Bo Scarborough from Alabama who is at Alabama now. They lost a lot of talent from last years team most notably, O'Connor, Scarborough, their DE who led the state with 18.5 sacks and CB Matt Boatand who is at Kansas this year. I would say from what I know athlete wise they are down but they will lean heavily on the running game this year with 3 massive lineman leading the way, last year's line was bigger than quite a few D1 teams, and will feature a 4 star Dual Threat QB in Deondre Francois. They also return a strong LB core and will be boosted in the secondary with Marcus Lewis arriving at Cb

Re: Manatee I am not sure how much you follow Manatee but being from that area their is a lot you may or may not know. First HC Joe Kinnan has been having health issues as of recent times and did not coach the spring game and his return is uncertain so that would be a huge loss for Manatee for the upcoming season. Also Manatee's starting QB last season was arrested during the offseason so his return looks doubtful at absolute best. His replacement for the game was a quarterback who has never played a snap at QB in his HS career and at 5'8 being maybe a bit generous there will have some struggles. The way Manatee will make it out is if either Kinnan/Meyer or both return for the fall and if RB Johnnie Lang can carry this team if Meyer is not available behind a line replacing 5 starters from last year. As for the Manatee team that won, i saw that team play a few games and while yes they were a 2 loss team they were losses to Don Bosco Prep who was the mythical national champion that year by 6 points and vs. Our Lady of Good Counsel who was another top ten nationally ranked team by a touchdown. Overall they were 8-2 in the regular season yes, but 8-0 vs florida teams. Its unfair to First Coast to use that game as a reference point for future teams success as First Coast has gotten better since as I saw that game vs Manatee and the spring game of a team that has developed over the past few years. Regardless of who was coming from the other side in that game I believe that Manatee still would have won that game, would it have been closer, maybe, but Manatee would still win. It will require a lot more work for First Coast but from the spring game i like their chances to make a run next fall

a couple games to add Manatee vs. Palmetto has replaced the Manatee vs. SE game as of recent years and while its not always close its on of the marquee matchups in the area and i think Palmetto can win this years game Manatee vs Venice has been a good game in the last 10 years especially the years with Trey Burton at Venice and then Cord Sandberg at Manatee also games that don't occur unless it's post season but have always been great games Manatee vs Plant Manatee vs STA

Any specific reason why you feel this way?

I am not very familiar but i do know a decent amount about IMG as i am originally from that area. It will be a very tough game for anyone playing IMG. The only schools in the state that I can think of that have similar or greater talent as IMG would be Trinity Christian( plays at IMG this year as well), Booker T. Washington, Saint Thomas Aquinas and First Coast. IMG is led by 3 future D1 lineman up front. In particular they have 3 lineman who are 6-5 275+ led by Tyree St. Louis who is 6-5 305 and hold many D1 offers. They don't have as many skill players as they did last year but in particular they have 6-2 QB Deiondre Francis who holds offers from schools such as UF and Oregon among many others. Defensively they are awaiting the transfer of 6-1 CB Marcus Lewis who is committed to UF. It will be a tough task for sure against a fairly loaded squad but they can be beat as it was shown last year, (Trinity Christian and Naples High) Here is the Sarasota Herald Tribune's preview on IMG for next year http://preps.heraldtribune.com/2014/05/27/football-check-img/

While yes 8a has a lot of tough teams, i don't see any team that has a similar level of talent as they do, i know Apopka and Plant will be tough, i don't know much about Dr. Phillips at the moment, and both Manatee and FPC lost a decent amount of talent this past year. In particular Manatee lost all 5 starters on the OL, their workhorse RB, their 4 year starter at DT who is now at FSU, their coach has numerous health problems and his future is uncertain and their QB was arrested recently and there current QB due to the circumstances hasn't played a snap at QB in HS so Manatee has a lot of question marks. This evaluation of First Coast having a chance to make a deep run is predicated on their spring performance that was flawless overall and looked like a team that had everything figured out and executed flawlessly than that of how teams normally look in spring. Will be an interesting year for sure.

My evaluation was based on a team that appeared to be in mid season form offensively and defensively with a wealth of talent that very few teams in the state have... and in regards to 2011 I saw that Manatee team play numerous times that year as i am from that area and i knew going in to that game that they over matched that First Coast team badly. This team from what i saw is a team that i believe can make a deep run this year. Anything can change as the year goes on, injuries could affect any number of teams and players this year that could change the state title race, this evaluation was based on what i saw from spring, a time when teams normally look shakey, that this team looked like that of a team that has the tools to go far.